


In Another Life

by QuantumAlice



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Interesting NPCs Mod, Riverwood, Skyrim Romance Mod, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 05:26:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12101718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuantumAlice/pseuds/QuantumAlice
Summary: In one lifetime Bishop gets the girl...In another he doesn't...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story came about after I had installed the Skyrim Romance Mod, I had not yet started it. ( At the time I couldn't find Bishop at first.) So when I went to the Sleeping Giant Inn on some other unrelated quest, I was taken aback by Bishop's rudeness.
> 
> It came out of nowhere and my first reaction was, " Well who the f*ck are you? I'm the Dragonborn arsehole! I don't need you as a companion I got my pick of them!"
> 
> Of course this all took place in my head, but that's besides the point. It was because of that conversation (and my initial reaction) I did not play the Mod with my Redguard Chedan, I refused to. I ended up finding Rumarin (by almost killing him... --_-- but that is tale for another day) and never looked back.
> 
> However, curiosity got the better of me and I came back created a new Redguard Dovahkiin Jaen to play the Mod out. These stories are a result from both playthroughs. I hope you enjoy them!

In Another Life…

* * *

 

She’s hardly the first Redguard he’d encountered in Skyrim, but for some reason she captures his attention all the same.

          Bishop had seen her before, several times in fact; some in the company of another, other times alone, but always from a distance. The ranger made sure he never got close enough for her to notice him, preferring to keep his distance. However, from the looks of it he needn’t have bothered, for the Redguard woman was always, and he meant _always_ on the move. So much so, that it’s to the point where Bishop knew her routine more or less by heart. Her stay was never long in Riverwood the ranger observed, she would mostly stop long enough to replenish her supplies, then be on her way to whatever destination the nine deemed necessary to lead her. On the rare occasion the woman did manage to stay put for more than a few hours, Bishop witnessed the Redguard’s friendly and familiar rapport with a locals of the small river village.

        He would often see her chatting with the trader, Lucan Valerius and his sister Camilla. _(He had heard through the grapevine that the Redguard woman had returned something of extreme importance to the trader. What it was, the ranger didn’t know but, it was enough of a big deal that Lucan Valerius couldn’t stop singing her praises for it.)_   Other times she would be helping out Alvor, the blacksmith or working at Gerdur’s lumber mill. In the evening he could find her at the Sleeping Giant Inn. Often Bishop made sure to sit in the darkest corner the inn could afford him _(away from Sven and his love triadic nonsense.)_ there he could study the Redguard over the rim of his tankard unmolested. She spoke habitually to Delphine, the Bosmer Faendal and a couple of the regulars that frequented the inn after sundown. Even Orgnar the massive Nord of few words could be seen trading gossip with her.

Everyone treated this Redguard woman as if she could do no wrong, as if she was perfect, Mara’s divined gift to the realm and for some reason it bothered the ranger to no end. Oh Bishop knew of her reputation. She got things done; people liked that, he himself had witnessed it firsthand.

Several weeks ago on a dark, late and starless night when nearly all the residents of Riverwood were asleep, the ranger overheard a hushed conversation as Gerdur took the Redguard into her confidence. They had been by a stump near the river, behind the blacksmith’s cottage, just past the lumber mill, neither women aware of Bishop in the shadows silently watching and listening. He’d heard it all, from Gerdur’s concerns about a possible dragon attack and the lack of protection for the small river village, to the quiet reassurance from the Redguard for her not to worry and her promise to do something about it.

She had left that very same night.

And thusly, it came to no surprise that the very next day guards were stationed at Riverwood from Whiterun. No doubt a result of the Redguard’s late night tête-à-tête with Gerdur, it further served as proof of her influence.  _Especially_ since Bishop knew _for a fact,_ that the gates to the great city of Whiterun were closed to outsiders; an order directly from the lips of Jarl Balgruuf himself.

  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although I don't mention it (and for good reason) do not confuse the IAL:Chedan with the REDHAND:Chedan... its not the same person. I just want to clear that up encase anyone has read the RedHand Story.  
>  Chedan is one of my favorite names and at the time I'd forgotten I'd already used it for another Redguard. In any case sorry for the confusion!!


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

 

_“How many times have I told you Gerdur not to call me that? My namesake will do…”_

Bishops keen ears perked at the sound of a sweet, familiar voice which could only belong to _one_ person in the whole of Skyrim. _So she was back then?_ Bishop mused silently. _It’s been a while…_ Against his better judgment the ranger turned his gaze in the direction of the encroaching visitor.  Both women were deep in conversation, with Gerdur’s slight teasing of the Redguard causing the woman in question to sigh every now and then.

_“How could I even dare? You are now the Thane of Whiterun! And such a title is not given out lightly and should be treated with respect!”_

_“Gerdur…”_ The Redguard replied, her tenor somewhat weary.

 _“My Thane…”_ Gerdur ripostes in a cheeky manner.

They are much closer to the ranger now, so much so that he could not feign ignorance of their approach. He hears the matron Nord call out to him seeking his attention.

The ranger watched, rooted on the spot, as Gerdur introduced the Redguard, gesturing towards Bishop saying. _“And this, this is the man I was telling you about. This is Bishop.”_ The Redguard had turned to him, lips parting poised to speak. However the ranger was quick on the take beating, the woman to the punch.

_“Ah! And who’s this? The villagers look at you as if you’re nobility! Well if you’re looking for someone to fawn and kiss your boots I suggest asking elsewhere… My Thane.”_

He regretted the words the instant they left his lips.

He wanted to retract them, to fall to his knees and beg this Redguard woman to forgive him. To grab her by those strong yet slender shoulders and keep her there until she believed, by the grace of the nine, he had not meant what was said.  _For they were lies, complete and utter lies_ his inner self shouted. However, Bishop would do no such thing, for he was a man steeled with a large, nearly unshakeable sense of pride. The ranger liken the sensation to being shot with an arrow enchanted with a potent paralyzing spell.  And it would not let him bend, to betray any kind of weakness no matter how he may have felt internally.

In any case, it was too late, the damage had been done and the evidence was plain for him to see. 

It wasn’t so much as her body language, nor her facial expression, for to her credit both stayed the same. No it was her eyes that gave it away, those flawless amethyst depths that were, just moments ago, filled with warmth and a bit of curiosity _for him_ , changed in an instant. They now regarded Bishop with such a sharp, glacial clarity, far colder than the frozen Atmoran continent, that it simultaneously burned and chilled the ranger in one fell swoop.

It took every ounce of discipline Bishop had in him to hold that wintry gaze, that amethyst fire. He barely recalled Gerdur’s indignant scoff of.

 _“Bishop! How dare you! Do you even…”_ the Redguard had intervened, silencing the matron Nord with a casual, nearly careless gesture of her slight, lithe russet hand.

She never once broke eye contact, opting instead to let her gaze travel the length of the ranger, from the tips of his flaxen hair, to the soles of his careworn boots. Bishop had never felt so exposed, so on display, so judged then he did in that moment. Her observation only took a second, but it felt more like an eternity.

The silence had been deafening.

 For the first time in his natural life, the ranger realized that _this_ was it, this is what it felt like to be the prey, not the predator and he did not like this foreign feeling, not in the slightest.  And just when Bishop thought it couldn’t get any worse, the Redguard woman smiled at him, _“No.”_ she says in an accented voice soft yet filled with the command steel a kin to that of a seasoned warrior, her full lips curling upward giving her smile a bite that just barely betrayed her ire. Bishop could say nothing.

 _“Don’t worry about it Gerdur,”_ she states, her voice calm cold and steady, “ _I don’t need him.”_

With her intentions declared the Redguard finally looks away, her consideration once more focused on Gerdur. Both women moved past the ranger without another word to him, their ill-fated encounter fast becoming a distant and forgotten memory. As he stood there in silence finally free from that frozen amethyst fire, Bishop caught the tail end of their conversation,

 _“It’s just as well we’re here Gerdur,”_ the Redguard was saying, _“I need to speak with Delphine anyways. Come! I’ll buy you a pint…”_

The doors to the Sleeping Giant Inn slammed heavily behind the ranger. The weighty force of the sound serving as if to further drive in the finality of what he’d had done home. He doesn’t turn around to look at those closed doors, he doesn’t dare. Nor can he get what she said out of his mind.

_I don’t need him…_

Those four words would haunt Bishop for the rest of his days.

 

* * *

 

Months passed before Bishop saw her again. When he did, the ranger noticed that the Redguard was accompanied by a male Altmer mage. Bishop thought nothing of it at first, as he’d seen the woman with multiple companions before. Nothing about their interactions with one another seemed suspect and the pair had left as quickly as they had come.  Sometime later, he’d heard of an outrageous tale involving her, the Altmer mage, an Argonian and a Nord in a cavern not far from Falkreath. And if the rumors were to be believed, the group had battled some sort of legendary mythical creature and found a sleeping Mer maiden beneath a waterfall.

When next the pair had stopped in Riverwood, all the village children exclaimed in glee, crowding around the two of them. Many demanding stories as children often do. One child in particular, Alvor’s and Sigrid’s little girl Dorthe, ran up to the Redguard. Grabbing the sleeve of her armor, the child demands to know if it was true? Had a dragon really attacked Riften on her wedding day? And did she really fight it in her wedding gown!?

Bishop felt something pierce his chest like a dagger at the child’s questions. _She was married? How could that be?_ Surely it couldn’t be true… Not with one such as her! All of Skyrim knew of the Redguard’s feats of impossibility… Surely if she were to get married, _in Skyrim no less,_ half the country would be clamoring to attend.

  His thoughts streaked across his mind as lightning does upon the sky. Letting out a silent curse, Bishop balled a fist, turned on his heel and stalked away. He didn’t want to hear the answer to those questions. For if it was true… Bishop didn’t want to think of what that would mean. Or what was loss to him…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shall I end Chedan's & Bishop's story here and move on to Jaen? Or do you want me to torment Bishop just a bit longer?


End file.
